Please could you state one thing that your mother did with you that you will do/already do with your DD?

Maybe that's why you have wood floors?

I take DS around National Trust and English Heritage properties. I loved history and so does he. My mum loves finding the photos from when she took me and sharing them with DS after we've been to the same place.

So that's what I missed out on by not having a mum. Shame I've got wood floors.

My mother was 95% of the time an abusive alcoholic but I always remember her having perfect nails. She still does. She taught me once how to paint them. Never go all the way to the sides or the bottom to make them look longer. I still do it 25 years later!

I hate her for so many things but I'll never forget when she sat and did that with me.

Excellent. So apparently what mums should do with their daughters is talk about eco-friendly carpet cleaning

Just chatting together really. I find my mum easy to talk to and I hope one day my DD may say the same about me.

Expecting first baby and don't know if girl or boy but things I would like to do for any child I have that my mum did for me.
-baking
-making cards and decorations for birthdays/Christmas/Easter
-baking birthday cakes
-bathtimes together when little
-making up stories
-reading together
-a get well box, special things to be played with when poorly. (think this came from a book called 'My Naughty Little Sister'

I used to love my mum brushing my hair when I was little and giving me a head massage, if I have a girl (or boy!) who has long hair I will do this beyond what is needed to get out tangles/make neat. It's very relaxing and I still love it now.

such a lovely thread

I always knew growing up, that no matter what I What mistakes I made she loved me. I hope my dd knows the same.
Mummy cuddles defiantly, my mums Passed away miss those dreadfully.
Cooking and baking.
She treasured all the tat my sisters made at school, looking in her box of Christmas decorations when she passed away she'd kept all the calendars, egg box Christmas bells and all the stuff we'd ever made.

She engaged my curiosity, shockingly the only example I can think of is her burning a hole, through a page of her woman's weekly with her cigarette!

My mother taught me how to be a strong independent woman with zero tolerance for manfucknuggetry.
Thank you mum, I love you xxx

she taught me loads, but I have to think carefully about all the positive things because we have very clashing personalities and don't actually get on well.

It's unfair on her, but I'm blinded by the negative to see to positive

I have a daughter too and I hope our relationship will be better than what my mother and I have.

therefore I'm here to learn

My mother died when I was eleven, but having a daughter has helped me realise and remember what I had whilst she was around, (years after were misery memoir grim) and now she's older we seem to mother whichever of us needs mothering. We're a similar size, so pass on some clothes (depending on style) and just talk in a way I don't with my sons, older or younger.

When she was six, she asked me, "Did your mother knit clothes for your teddies?" out of the blue, and of course she did-ski jumpers, trousers and hats.

I agree with this - though I know its not a popular view.

I took the attitude that mine would be doing chored for the rest of their lives once they left home, so they might as well enjoy childhood as the one time they didn't really need to worry about them.
However I did have an absolute rule that if I did ask for help, I got it! without fuss query or dissent.

All of mine have ended up as adults with a great work ethic, and clean tidy houses - so it worked for us.

Aarrrrgh!! SEW! Not see

She taught me to see

Oh and going against a lot of what I've seen on MN, my mum almost never made us do chores.

She taught us to cook, use a washing machine, iron, manage money etc. But we never had weekly chores (or pocket money really). We were just children.

Now I'm an adult, I soooo appreciate her doing this as I work my butt off, then have housework/bill paying etc. so I appreciate even more my "carefree" childhood.

oh and both me and Dbro managed perfectly well when we left home at 18 so it didn't matter that we hadn't been washing up daily since we were 10.

It did help that my mum only worked part time though - doubt she'd have been the same if working full time!

My mum was always tolerant of my friends or boyfriends and welcoming to everyone. When I think back to some of the people I brought back to the house, and now thoughtless I was at times, I cringe lol. She never said a word against anyone (even though she must have wanted to on occasion). I have been the same about the friends my two have brought home (only then realising how hard it must have been for my mum), and I have never regretted it. Thanks mum!

My dds are both at university at the moment and I am missing them terribly. However, the things that we do are stuff like sitting in bed together and watching trashy tv, going shopping and chatting all the time. The is why I am missing them both so badly as my dh is so quiet. I didn't realise how quiet he was until now! I sometimes wish I had had a boy, but my girls are fantastic company.

Calling them for a chat when I'm in the bath, telling them every day I love them, girly evening for the 3 of us when we have a food buffet in a front of a movie, I'll try to think of other things.

My mum taught me to cook, nothing fancy, just homemade food, but she made it feel easy and I rarely find it a faff cooking from scratch for the family every day.

She made us dressing up clothes. My DC have outgrown this stage but I used to love running up little pirate costumes and similar on the sewing machine. They weren't works of art as I'm useless at sewing - they were all a bit hasty and wonky-seamed but DC loved them, and I did it because I remembered loving it when my mum made clothes for us.

She helped me revise for my A levels. I know I'll do the same when DC get to that stage. No shoving them in a room and assuming they're getting on with it. She chatted about subjects with me and discussed essay plans and helped with French vocab revision.

She wasn't so good at the girly stuff. My mum was staggeringly beautiful (skipped a generation here) and paid no attention to make up etc as she didn't need to. But she had a lovely friend who was always advising me on clothes and make up and passing cool stuff onto me that she claimed she'd outgrown. So let your friends help out too, as they may have some great ideas for your daughters that would never occur to you.

All this is lovely. But also:
don't forget to look after yourself, and let her see you doing it. Don't always put yourself last. You are a massive role model, as the same sex parent, and when you put yourself last (as so many mothers traditionally did in the family) you are sending her the message, "people like us - females - don't matter." Let her see you say (sometimes, a fair amount of the time obv, not insane world domination) "It's my turn to have the big arm chair today" or "Here is my beautiful new coat that I bought for myself". It might feel selfish but you are opening a space for her in which she will feel allowed to nurture herself.

what a lovely thread

I'm crying my eyes out reading it

As well as a lot of the lovely things already suggested by other posters my mum never made me feel that I wasnt good enough ...particularly through school. What ever school results I got she would always say that if it was my best then it was good enough for her.

Also little rituals always make me smile ... the bed time routines where you do exactly the same thing ever night, I fondly remember being told 'TTB' (Teeth, toilet, bed) ...I say the same thing to my kids now.